Buying a resale property
Posted: 16 Mar 2013 00:24
I have a question that may actually be of interest to other people who are considering buying a house in Cyprus since I would think that that should be a fairly common situation. We are considering buying a particular resale property (a house) that does not have a title deeds. The current owners bought the house from the developer several years ago. The house is a part of a larger development project that is still far from completion, and consequently there are no separate title deeds and I strongly suspect that there won’t be separate title deeds in any foreseeable future. But the place is very nice and the price is relatively cheap.
We have not checked the developers title deeds yet (for the whole project, as there are no separate titles yet), but I presume that there must be a mortgage for which the land (for the whole project) serves as the collateral. I wonder whether we can still safely buy this house if we manage to negotiate a waiver with the bank that issued the mortgage to the developer, meaning having the bank sign off any claims to our subplot of land. Will such a waiver provide a 100% protection (assuming there are no other claims) of our property should the developer declare bankruptcy? Also, how much can we expect the bank to charge us for such a waver?
Given the legal complexities, we are, of course, eventually going to retain services of a local independent attorney but at this point I am trying to understand whether we can do it or we better consider only those houses that already have title deeds. I would very much appreciate any input.
Thank you in advance,
Rafael
We have not checked the developers title deeds yet (for the whole project, as there are no separate titles yet), but I presume that there must be a mortgage for which the land (for the whole project) serves as the collateral. I wonder whether we can still safely buy this house if we manage to negotiate a waiver with the bank that issued the mortgage to the developer, meaning having the bank sign off any claims to our subplot of land. Will such a waiver provide a 100% protection (assuming there are no other claims) of our property should the developer declare bankruptcy? Also, how much can we expect the bank to charge us for such a waver?
Given the legal complexities, we are, of course, eventually going to retain services of a local independent attorney but at this point I am trying to understand whether we can do it or we better consider only those houses that already have title deeds. I would very much appreciate any input.
Thank you in advance,
Rafael